Road & Track April/May 2021

EVEL KNIEVEL MUSEUM HUMANS ARE ineluctably drawn to doing stupid, dumb, silly things just for the hell of it. We slip into squirrel suits and jump off mountaintops (no thanks); we climb 2000-foot-tall radio towers and hang by one finger just to get an Instagram shot (not for me). We gamble our rent money on the stock market from our phones. That’s not the sort of risky behavior I’m drawn to. Nor is risk theater. A few years ago, I entered an autocross in Southern California (in a Mercedes SLK), and I overheard the race marshal reassuring someone’s nervous spouse, “We minimize actual risk and maximize apparent risk.” In other words, it’s mostly theatrical. Getting into a car has by nature an added element of risk—especially when compared with sitting…

HUMANS ARE ineluctably drawn to doing stupid, dumb, silly things just for the hell of it. We slip into squirrel suits and jump off mountaintops (no thanks); we climb 2000-foot-tall radio towers and hang by one finger just to get an Instagram shot (not for me). We gamble our rent money on the stock market from our phones. That’s not the sort of risky behavior I’m drawn to. Nor is risk theater. A few years ago, I entered an autocross in Southern California (in a Mercedes SLK), and I overheard the race marshal reassuring someone’s nervous spouse, “We minimize actual risk and maximize apparent risk.” In other words, it’s mostly theatrical. Getting into a car has by nature an added element of risk—especially when compared with sitting on your sofa. Society accepts that…

Tim McDonagh TIM MCDONAGH IS an illustrator living and working in the south of England. Inspired by old comics, gig posters, and tattoos, his work is an antidote to more popular, more twee styles and can be applied to pretty much any job. Despite having a digital finish, McDonagh’s art is all hand-drawn. He enjoys drawing more extreme scenes and packing the illustration with detail so intense that it becomes almost gruesome. His highly energized version of Ken Carter’s big jump graces this issue’s cover. A.J. Baime When he was six years old, A.J. Baime started writing stories and playing with Hot Wheels cars. He is still at it on both fronts. Baime’s books include Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans and his most…

PHOTOGRAPHS: COURTESY OF TIM MCDONAGH Tim McDonagh TIM MCDONAGH IS an illustrator living and working in the south of England. Inspired by old comics, gig posters, and tattoos, his work is an antidote to more popular, more twee styles and can be applied to pretty much any job. Despite having a digital finish, McDonagh’s art is all hand-drawn. He enjoys drawing more extreme scenes and packing the illustration with detail so intense that it becomes almost gruesome. His highly energized version of Ken Carter’s big jump graces this issue’s cover. ROB WILLIAMSON A.J. Baime When he was six years old, A.J. Baime started writing stories and playing with Hot Wheels cars. He is still at it on both fronts. Baime’s books include Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle…

DANGER HAS ALWAYS been central to the appeal of motorsports. Old-school tracks like Indianapolis, Le Mans, and the Nürburgring still thrill, even as tightening safety regulations have cleaned up their rap sheets. But the most famous corners in racing are still some of the most dangerous, the ones where pushing a fraction harder can earn precious tenths, or carom your car off a wall. Or worse. We wondered what it would look like if you strung 10 of the most noted, treacherous corners together into one monster track. The result could only exist in your nastiest nightmares. DRIVER’S 1 MANUAL The Road Is Flooded… Don’t panic. If the water is six inches to a foot deep, your car may float. Two feet deep, you’re definitely floating. If your car stalls, get out and…

BONNEVILLE IS HOLY GROUND for the speed freak: a flat stretch of ash-white earth running underfoot for more than 12 miles. Eons of circumstance built this racecourse on Utah’s western edge. Speed Week has called it home since 1949, and with good reason. Bonneville’s a rare spot where humanity might stare risk in the eyes, skirting safety and sanity to hang it way out past the edge, strapped to one 200-plus-mph rocket car or another. Here, the horizon is the only obstacle to outright speed. For now, that is. Speed Week has become increasingly threatened over the past decade, canceled in both 2014 and 2015. Those minuscule grains of salt that faithfully bubble forth and harden into God’s Own Runway are disappearing, literally. Racers once counted on a salt surface nearly…